Mechanism for Implementing Labels and Reminders in a Email System

• US 20110173548A1
• Filed: 03/24/2011
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tamiras Per Pte Ltd LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Misaki Acquisitions LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Madnani, Rajkumar R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,856,244 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A mechanism is disclosed for generating a composite email for an email conversation. The composite email includes content automatically extracted from a plurality of the emails in the email conversation, and may be generated in response to a user accessing just one of the emails in the email conversation. A mechanism is also disclosed for discovering and recovering lost emails in an email conversation. A mechanism is further disclosed for automatically moving emails from one container to another after an email has been read. These and other advantageous email generating, manipulation, and organization mechanisms are disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method, comprising:

causing a first user interface component to be rendered proximate to a second user interface component, wherein the second user interface component represents a logical container in which one or more electronic mail messages (emails) may be stored, and wherein the first user interface component indicates how many of the emails that are currently stored in the logical container are unread emails;

receiving an indication that a user is invoking the first user interface component; and

in response to the user invoking the first user interface component, causing an email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the email listing includes only the unread emails that are currently stored in the logical container.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an unread email is an email that has not been accessed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein an unread email is an email that has not been acknowledged by a user as having been read.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an unread email is an email that has been accessed but has not been acknowledged by a user as having been read.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the user is invoking the second user interface component; and

in response to the user invoking the second user interface component, causing another email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the other email listing includes all of the emails that are currently stored in the logical container, including all unread and previously read emails.

6. A machine implemented method, comprising:

associating a set of one or more filtering criteria with a label;

applying the set of filtering criteria to emails stored in one or more logical containers to derive a set of one or more filtered emails that satisfy the filtering criteria;

associating the set of filtered emails with the label;

causing the label to be rendered to a user;

receiving an indication that the user is invoking the label; and

in response to the user invoking the label, causing an email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the email listing includes the emails in the set of filtered emails.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the label is not a logical container within which emails are stored, and wherein associating the set of filtered emails with the label comprises:

associating references to the set of filtered emails with the label.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

causing a user interface component to be rendered proximate to the label, wherein the user interface component indicates how many of the emails in the set of filtered emails are unread emails;

receiving an indication that the user is invoking the user interface component; and

in response to the user invoking the user interface component, causing another email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the other email listing includes only the unread emails in the set of filtered emails.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein an unread email is an email that has not been accessed.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein an unread email is an email that has not been acknowledged by a user as having been read.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein an unread email is an email that has been accessed but has not been acknowledged by a user as having been read.

12. A machine implemented method, comprising:

associating a first user-specified reminder with a first electronic mail message (email), the first reminder having a first reminder date associated therewith;

associating a first set of one or more date filtering criteria with a first heading;

applying the first set of date filtering criteria to the first reminder date to determine that the first reminder date satisfies the first set of date filtering criteria;

causing the first heading to be rendered; and

causing a first user interface (UI) component to be rendered proximate to the first heading, wherein the first UI component indicates a number of emails having reminders associated therewith that have reminder dates that satisfy the first set of date filtering criteria, and wherein the number of emails indicated by the first UI component includes the first email.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving an indication that a user is invoking the first UI component;

in response to the user invoking the first UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the first email.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first reminder has a first set of reminder text associated therewith, and wherein the information pertaining to the first email comprises at least a portion of the first set of reminder text.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the first email is stored in a first logical container, and wherein the method further comprises:

causing a second UI component to be rendered, wherein the second UI component indicates a number of emails stored in the first logical container having reminders associated therewith that have reminder dates that satisfy the first set of date filtering criteria, and wherein the number of emails indicated by the second UI component includes the first email.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving an indication that a user is invoking the second UI component;

in response to the user invoking the second UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the first email.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first reminder has a first set of reminder text associated therewith, and wherein the information pertaining to the first email comprises at least a portion of the first set of reminder text.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

associating a second user-specified reminder with a second email, the second reminder having a second reminder date associated therewith; and

applying the first set of date filtering criteria to the second reminder date to determine that the second reminder date satisfies the first set of date filtering criteria; and

wherein the number of emails indicated by the first UI component includes both the first email and the second email.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving an indication that a user is invoking the first UI component;

in response to the user invoking the first UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the first email and information pertaining to the second email.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first reminder has a first set of reminder text associated therewith, wherein the second reminder has a second set of reminder text associated therewith, wherein the information pertaining to the first email comprises at least a portion of the first set of reminder text, and wherein the information pertaining to the second email comprises at least a portion of the second set of reminder text.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the first email is stored in a first logical container, wherein the second email is stored in a second logical container, and wherein the method further comprises:

causing a second UI component to be rendered, wherein the second UI component indicates a number of emails stored in the first logical container having reminders associated therewith that have reminder dates that satisfy the first set of date filtering criteria, and wherein the number of emails indicated by the second UI component includes the first email but not the second email.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

causing a third UI component to be rendered, wherein the third UI component indicates a number of emails stored in the second logical container having reminders associated therewith that have reminder dates that satisfy the first set of date filtering criteria, and wherein the number of emails indicated by the third UI component includes the second email but not the first email.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving an indication that a user is invoking the second UI component;

in response to the user invoking the second UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the first email but no information pertaining to the second email.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first reminder has a first set of reminder text associated therewith, and wherein the information pertaining to the first email comprises at least a portion of the first set of reminder text.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the user is invoking the third UI component;

in response to the user invoking the third UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the second email but no information pertaining to the first email.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the second reminder has a second set of reminder text associated therewith, and wherein the information pertaining to the second email comprises at least a portion of the second set of reminder text.

27. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

associating a second user-specified reminder with a second email, the second reminder having a second reminder date associated therewith;

associating a second set of one or more date filtering criteria with a second heading;

applying the second set of date filtering criteria to the second reminder date to determine that the second reminder date satisfies the second set of date filtering criteria;

causing the second heading to be rendered; and

causing a second UI component to be rendered proximate to the second heading, wherein the second UI component indicates a number of emails having reminders associated therewith that have reminder dates that satisfy the second set of date filtering criteria, and wherein the number of emails indicated by the second UI component includes the second email but not the first email; and

wherein the number of emails indicated by the first UI component includes the first email but not the second email.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

causing a third UI component to be rendered, wherein the third UI component indicates a number of emails having reminders associated therewith, and wherein the number of emails indicated by the third UI component includes both the first email and the second email.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

receiving an indication that a user is invoking the third UI component;

in response to the user invoking the third UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the first email and information pertaining to the second email.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the first reminder has a first set of reminder text associated therewith, wherein the second reminder has a second set of reminder text associated therewith, wherein the information pertaining to the first email comprises at least a portion of the first set of reminder text, and wherein the information pertaining to the second email comprises at least a portion of the second set of reminder text.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the user is invoking the first UI component;

in response to the user invoking the first UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the first email but no information pertaining to the second email.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the first reminder has a first set of reminder text associated therewith, and wherein the information pertaining to the first email comprises at least a portion of the first set of reminder text.

33. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the user is invoking the second UI component;

in response to the user invoking the second UI component, causing a first email listing to be rendered to the user, wherein the first email listing includes information pertaining to the second email but no information pertaining to the first email.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the second reminder has a second set of reminder text associated therewith, and wherein the information pertaining to the second email comprises at least a portion of the second set of reminder text.